The Orviston plate. Relief from Copernicus GLO-30; rivers and lakes from USGS NHD; watersheds from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; roads and city limits from Census TIGER 2024.
Mostly cloudy
Mostly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Sunny
Sunny
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny
3.43 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1895. The next wettest, 2.75 inches, fell in 1903.
Orviston’s center stands about 880 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 820 ft to 1,940 ft, a difference of 1,120 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Bear Knob, about 2,370 ft, 14 miles southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Huntley Mountain Formation (sandstone, siltstone), from the Devonian to Carboniferous, 324 to 422 million years old.
The section below crosses 14 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 11×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone, sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone. Age: Devonian to Carboniferous, 324 to 422 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, mudstone. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, shale. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 8 smaller units along the line are not listed.
Heights from Copernicus GLO-90 (a surface model: it includes buildings and tree canopy); summits from USGS GNIS; rivers from USGS NHDPlus HR; rock from the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation.
A raindrop that lands in Orviston reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Beech Creek, Bald Eagle Creek, the West Branch Susquehanna and the Susquehanna: about 220 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Aldred.
85 miles of the trip are on the Susquehanna.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Orviston; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Orviston has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 83° in July; winter nights fall to about 19° in January. A normal year brings about 33 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 41 inches of water.
On November 14 Orviston normally reaches 50° and falls to 32°. The record high is 72°, in 1902; the record low 14°, in 2019. The most rain on this date, 0.63 in, fell in 1997.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1895 at Renovo, 15 miles north, 220 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
